Sword of the Emperor
by TDX
Summary: The world of Warhammer 40k is a dark, brutal place. It is here that I place familiar heroes. This is one of their stories.
1. Default Chapter

I AM KAL-EL 

She stood looking out the window. Countless pillars of smoke rose from the horizon. Each one symbolized the death of another city and echoed the fate of the whole planet. It wouldn't be long now and her city would join them. Sorrow and despair encroached on her but she refused its grip for now. She thought of her husband and baby and went to check on them.

Her footsteps echoed through the marble hallways. The halls were large enough for ten men to stand fifty abreast. Normally she would have had to press her way through a throng of people waiting to receive judgments. They were all gone now, each retreating to some deeply dug bunker or joining their countrymen in defense of their kingdoms. If only they had listening. 

"Jor-el!" she called entering the lab. "Jor-el"

"I am here my wife." He answered. He was dressed in red and black fatigues with blue body armor on the chest, arms and legs. He turned from the computer screen on his tables to see he lovely wife.

She was beautiful even now. Her crimson and turquoise dress clung to her accentuating her figure. He marveled at the way her long, dark hair bounced as she moved. It seemed strange that on the eve of his death he should have such thoughts.   

"It feels so strange to be the only people in the Palace of Judgment" she said. 

"You should've went to the great cave with the others my dear." He replied returning to his computer.

"My place is with you." She said walking over to him. "And you know as well as I do that the cave will not be much protection."

"I do." he said sorrowfully thinking of his fellows who would soon learn. "If only they had listened."

Exactly one year ago he and his fellow members of the Kryptonian Elite Guard utterly decimated a group of malcontents seeking to overthrow of the planetary government. He deduced that aliens started the group, who referred to themselves as the Shadow Coven. 

In fact he had personally seen several creatures that were not of Kryptonian origin. His conclusions were unceremoniously dismissed. The powers that be, The Great Science Council, decided that the things were the result of genetic engineering. They laughed as him even more when he suggested that the Shadow Coven were the precursor to a greater invasion.

"Husband," she said taking his face in her hands, "you did all you could. You told them of the approaching danger. They put their faith in the machines in orbit. This is not your fault."

"I know." He said staring into her eyes and embracing her.

The crying of their baby broke the moment.

"I'm here little Kal-el." She said picking the baby up from his crib. "Mother's here little one."

"I don't know how you do it?" he said. " I have to rock him for hours before he stops crying."

"That's because he's mother's little angel." She said holding her baby close.

There was a hiss as the door on the escape ship opened. It was silver and shaped like a disk.

"Its time." He said.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes." He said stoically. "There're others like us out in the void. I couldn't save our empire but maybe I can help another."

"Where is this other empire?"

"Several hundred million light years away." 

" Hundred million light years?" She said clutching her baby tighter. "He'll never survive the trip."

"He will." Jor-el answered. "I've made some adjustments to the space suspension module. He will arrive as a grown man. The ship will teach him every thing he will need to know. Our son will be the greatest asset to the Emperor."

"Who is the Emperor?"

"He is the head of the empire where we are sending Kal-el."

"How do you know this husband?"

"Because I have talked to the Emperor." Jor-el explained. "I see him in my sleep."

"You what?" she said backing away from him. Had her beloved been driven mad by the events around them?

"I see him in my dreams." Jor-el confessed. "He helped me modify the escape ship. Kal-el will have power's far greater then other men."

"You're scaring me."

"Would you rather let our child die with us?" He asked. The thump of the Place's automatic perimeter cannons punctuated his question. "Enemies are at the gates. In moments they will be on us."

"This is my baby." She said with tears rolling down her face.

"He is mine to." Jor-el said taking the child from her arms. "It is his duty, as a son of a loyal soldier of the Kryptonian Empire, to avenge us all."

She watched helplessly as he strapped her baby into the ship. Jor-el was right. Her mind knew it but her heart was having trouble letting go. Her husband joined her as the ship started its firing sequence.

They were both startled when alien creatures crashed through the door. Jor-el grabbed his weapon and fired. One of the big headed monsters with four arms exploded just like the ones he'd seen with the coven. 

The others turned and rushed toward him. Another creature exploded. He saw his wife had gotten the other weapon. Step by step the two Kryptonians retreated until they were backed up to the ship.

"A little longer." Jor-el said trying to encourage his wife. 

"I know." She replied ignoring the cries of her little one inside the ship.

Moments later the boosters ignited vaporizing everything in the lab as they lifted the ship in to the sky. At six hundred feet the ship engaged it cloaking systems. It was totally invisible as flew past the hive fleet and drooped into warp. Little Kal-el was in the care of the Emperor now. 

Two hundred years later....

They moved like death personified. The guardsmen fell before them as grass under a reaper's blade. The city, indeed this very world, would be offered up to the Khrone the Blood God. In the center of the storm his chosen Champion, Blackath, delivered death in every direction. His great axe singing at the taste of flesh.

"They have breached the wall!" The guardsmen yelled.

"So they have." Commissar Davious replied. "Captain, gather your men. We shall mount a counter attack here in this court yard."

"All is lost. We should flee!" The Captain insisted.

"Coward." The Commissar said. "We all shall die a brave man chooses where and when."

"Of course." The Captain said. "Forgive me Commissar."

"You are forgiven but this once." He said thumbing his chain-sword to life. "We will teach these fool of the Emperor's wraith."

He was light years away when he picked up the distress call traveling through the void. The astropath assigned to the Ferros Prime had done a good job. As he approached he saw Ferros was an argi-world. That it was rich in food for the Empire. He could see a cancer growing there that if left unchecked would consume the entire world. He couldn't allow that.

Commissar Davious had seen men fight bravely before, but the guardsmen of Ferros Prime managed to surprise him. They were actually holding the courtyard. In his heart he knew it was for naught. Eventually they would be over run and killed. He smiled. Soon he'd see the great Emperor face to face.

"Stop!" He commanded. His voice was loud as a hundred thunderclaps. He hung in the sky suspended by will alone. His royal blue armor still shined as brightly as the gold, two headed eagle spread across his chest. A red cape billowed in the wind behind him. His handsome features in a frown as he watched them with cold blue eyes. 

The horde of marines gazed up at him and laughed. He was not deterred.

"You were once servants of the mighty Emperor." He said. "As such I offer you a quick and painless death."

They laughed again. Then in a blink of an eye he was in their midst.

The first of them died before they knew it. Then their berserker rage over took them. They rushed head long to their destruction. Bolter fire pitted his armor in places but didn't penetrate. 

Most he dispatched with his heat beams from his eyes reducing them to ashes. When he grew tired of this he used his cooling breath turning them into frozen statues that he'd shatter. Those that did make it into close combat found themselves out classed. He casually dismembered them. Using the parts to impale others. 

"We've won." The captain shouted. "They're retreating."

"Emperor's breath." Commissar Davious said. "They're withdrawing from the city. They could be reading bombardment. Captain; get me three good men. I'm going to check it out."

"Of course Commissar" he replied. "You three with the Commissar."

The chaos marines parted like a sea as the Chaos Champion approached. The former space marine stood over ten feet tall. His armor was adorned with human skulls and all other blasphemous things. He welded a great axe that crackled with damning energy.

"Are you the one who lead them down this path?" he asked gesturing to those around him.

"Who are you?" the Champion asked.

"I am Kal-el." He said. "Sword of the Emperor. Deliverer of his Judgment."

The champion laughed. Then struck with his axe.

Kal-el side stepped the blow and punched him in the face. The Blackath howled with rage and charged him again. Blackath once more found himself striking at a ghost. Kal-el hammered him in the face again cracking his helmet. A putrid smelling substance oozed forth. Faster than thought Kal-el rushed him. He stuck his fingers in the split in the Blackath's helmet and pulled. There was the sound of rending metal and bone. The champion lay dead with his head shelled like a nut. 

"Blood for the Blood god!" The rest chanted as they pressed in on Kal-el.

"What do you think is happening Commissar?" the scout asked.

"Hard to tell from here." Commissar Davious replied as they stood atop the wall. "I believe we shall have to get closer." 

"Enough" Kal-el yelled. He flew from the pile of men on him casting some skyward.

He hovered half a mile above them watching as they foolishly shot up at him. He reached into a compartment in his armor. He retrieved a square block. It was no bigger then a hand held communicator. Most would never know it was a deadly weapon. It was carved from the super dense metal that had been his spaceship.  The block Kal-el held weighed well over two tons. When thrown at high velocities it had the power of a nuclear explosion. He gave it a half toss.

"What is that sound Commissar?" the scout asked.

"Sounds like artillery." He replied. "Take cover!"

The men made his words action.

The primary explosion killed most of the chaos marines with the shock waves finished off the rest. When Commissar Davious and his men dig themselves out they found that the enemy was gone.

"The Emperor has given us another chance." Commissar Davious said. "Let us go forth and slay the others attached to this retched rebellion."

From space Kal-el watched the Commissar making sure things were well in hand. When he was satisfied that were no more marines were lurking about he headed back to deep space. He was still on the trail of a band of Dark Eldar that slaughtered the people of Terris Nine. 


	2. Fear

She who is to evil to name was the leader of a vast force of dark eldar. They'd descended on the planet Wroth with the intent of reaping a bitter harvest of souls and fresh bodies for torture. The pitiful defenses of the populace lasted but a day before her might. Soon the air of was filled with the cries of terror and the smell of blood. She who was to evil to name looked upon it and it was good. Though in her mind she knew no matter how adept a predator eventually they would become prey for another. It was the law of the universe. The only law she subscribed to. When her time came she would be ready. 

"From this distance it looks it looks peaceful." Kal-el thought. He stood atop a asteroid watching the planet Wroth. His heart ached at the carnage that he saw. He desired to rescue the citizens but he hadn't lived this long by rushing in. Something was strange about this band of Dark Eldar. 

They seemed to want his attention. Most enemies of the empire would dread such a thing. Kal-el knew as unlikely as it seemed he was about to fly into a trap. 

"So be it." He said leaping from his perch.

"Mistress sector one reports renewed resistance."

"Send all units to sector one." She said

"Is that wise?" the servant asked. "How do we know this isn't a diversion?"

"Because I know it's not a diversion." She allowed the servant to leave. If all were successful she'd kill him later, if not he'd be dead any way. She examined the small box in her hand and smiled.

The Dark Eldar jet bikes swooped in on Kal-el. He stood his ground. The blades on the sleek bikes designed for dismembering were easy handholds for him. Rider's screamed as they're bikes were snatched from under them. The air came alive with splinter rifle and shrunken cannon fire. Kal-el saw the rest of the army approaching in the distance. He frowned reading him self for the grim task ahead.

She who is to evil to name sat on the balcony watching the east. Plumes of smoke rising from the forest told her it wouldn't be long now. The Sword of the Emperor was on his way. She laughed thinking of what awaited him. She'd had the last of the humans slaughtered and spread through the city. They're blood would be the red carpet welcoming him. Soon he would join his precious charges in death.

The sounds of battle roused her from her planning. In the streets below the last of her forces regrouped. The two anti-grav tanks flanking her make shift headquarters exploded.

The air whistled around her. In seconds her troops were down, each with a blade sticking out of their chest. She could only watch in as he flew up to her balcony.

Kal-el stared at her. She was covered head to toe in skintight black armor as all dark eldar were. She was sitting at a table returning his gaze through the red eyes of her helmet.

"So, you are the 'Sword of the Emperor'?" she asked breaking the silence. Kal-el had a presence about him she hadn't expected. Maybe it was the blood that dripped from his blue armor or the fact that he'd destroyed her entire army single handedly but he stirred something in her. "Why haven't you killed me yet?"

"I was studying you." He said.

"Why?" She asked taking off her helmet. She would give him the honor of seeing her face before he died.

"Because I want to know why creatures such as yourself exist." He explained. "When the Emperor would have you all live in peace."

"What care I for the Emperor of mankind?" she said. "He can not hold his own Empire together."

"You speak of the great rebellion. When the forces of Chaos set upon the empire. It is they who turned a half of the first Space Marines against the Emperor. Though the battle was hard the Emperor and those loyal to him defeated the rebels and routed them from the universe."

"I have studied your race for a long time." She said. "Your Emperor died. His rotting corpse sits on the throne."

"He may not live in the same sense as you or I," Kal-el explained, "but he is very much alive. I know for I have talked to him."

"You talked to a ghost." She said rising from the table. "All the machines hooked up to him won't let his soul return to the warp. Or maybe he's to cowardly to return."

"Why have you sought out my attention?" he asked. If he weren't above such things he would have found her beautiful. Though her evil heart twisted any loveliness she had.

"I wanted to see if you were myth or real." She said walking over to him touching the golden two-headed eagle on his chest. 

"You pay for the knowledge with your life." He said removing her hand. 

"Why must you kill me?" she asked. "Because a dead man told you to? Look down in the streets. Do any of them speak to you?"

"You should remember whom it is you're talking to." He said. "And speaking of."

"Do you remember a man named Lexor Luthorus?" she asked taking delight in watching his expression change.

"Yes." He said. He and Lexor were friends back on the Agri-World he lived on. "How do you know of him?"

"I found him on some sewage world I can't remember the name of." She answered. "I do remember him talking of you. He said the 'Emperor's Sword' was going to save him and his men. I'd never heard a man sound so sure I even put my people on alert. It was all for nothing you never came. He died cursing your name did you know that?"

"I couldn't answer his call." He said. "The Orks in sector...."

"I didn't ask for your excuses." She interrupted. "Why you left your friend in my loving care does not interest me. The other things he said before I silenced him did."

"Enough." Kal-el said walking toward her. "This ends now."

"I agree." She said. She met his advance holding a stone between her thumb and index finger. 

Kal-el felt the strength draining from him. Each step was agony. Soon he couldn't even stand and dropped to one knee.

"Beautiful isn't it?" she asked kicking him in the face. "Deep down your friend hated you with a bitter hatred fueled by jealousy. He had found out your weakness and was all too willing to tell me. I think he died happy knowing I was going to kill you."

"You are a liar." He said. He would find the strength to over come he just needed time. "Lexor was a faithful servant of the Emperor. You used your warp magic to pry the information from his corpse!"

"You have me mixed up." She said. "I'm a Dark Eldar unlike Eldar we don't use magic."

Kal-el consolidated all his strength for one final act. He looked up into her eyes and fired his heat beams. 

"My eyes!" she screamed. "What have you done?"

Kal-el didn't reply as he crawled away from her. He pulled himself up to the balcony railing and let himself tumble over. He barely felt the two hundred-foot fall to the street as his powers returned. 

"Damn you I can't see!" she said. She grabbed her pistol and started shooting blindly.

"I know." Kal-el said. She thrust the stone in the direction of his voice. "Do you really think I'm stupid enough to get in range again?"

"Come face me like a true warrior" she taunted. 

Kal-el laughed. "I am the Emperor's Sword." He said. "Not the Emperor's fool. I've talked to the dead men in the streets. You want to know what they called for?"

"What?" She said with what little defiance she had inside her.

"Vengeance." He answered.  

It was then that she who is to evil to name felt fear for the first and last time. 


End file.
